TARA VENERUSO: Director, Movies By Women.com founder, Podcast Host

A graduate of NYU (Tisch School of the Arts), Tara is an award-winning film director and editor whose movies have been at international film festivals & museums around the world. Her directing career began with the distributed feature documentary JANIS JOPLIN SLEPT HERE (1994). She has edited MTV & VH1 top-ten music videos and for The Independent Film Channel, BBC America, Wheel of Fortune & Discovery Channel. Tara’s also edited two docs for New Line Cinema’s The Lord of The Rings Two Towers DVD.

Tara is the president of Flaming Angel Films| The Edit Studio, based in Hollywood, CA. She’s currently in production for her upcoming feature film, RISK: At-Risk Girls Behind the Camera. Other projects include music videos, commercials, and documentaries. Fueling her interest in digital features, she has directed projects specifically designed for emerging technologies since 1995.

She’s taught courses at UCLA EXT and co-written articles for Filmmaker Magazine, Sight and Sound, Film Ireland, IndieWire, and contributed to Scientific American magazine. Featured in the LA Times (Feb 07), Tara’s also the founder and driving force of MoviesByWomen.com, the premier website devoted to the work of female directors. Their weekly email, THE FIRST WEEKENDERS GROUP, campaigns to increase box office sales for women directed films.

From the front lines of the Digital Filmmaking Revolution, Tara serves as an expert at universities and fests including Sundance, Los Angeles Film Festival, SXSW, AFI Film Festival, and internationally. She’s served as a consultant on digital features for companies including Next Wave Films, a company of The Independent Film Channel, and films including Christopher Nolan’s FOLLOWING (director of MEMENTO & BATMAN BEGINS), Academy Award nominated GENGHIS BLUES, and also Trump’s “The Apprentice”.